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Economy of Ethax
Rather strangely, the city is not actually that rich, despite its immense potential. The main reason for this is that most of their truly amazing products (which could be sold to foreign rulers for ridiculous amounts) are those which quite clearly violate the laws of physics. The Ethaxians are aware that their power is unique, and would rather not attract the attention of the Catholic Church, who might not take kindly to magnetic witchcraft. One major aspect of Ethaxian economy is taking advantage of trade between other city states, which they nominally have no business in. It does this via its impressive shipbuilding industry; crafting sturdy ships with iron hulls for a fraction of the normal cost, since telekinesis means that the costs of labour are basically negligible, apart from the intellectual labour of the designers and planners. The ships are sold on the basis of 'Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies'. Depending on who orders them, the ships might be designed by Ethaxians or by the commissioners themselves. These ships power most of the trade between cities (except for Venice and its massive shipbuilding empire, almost all city-states use at least some Ethaxian ships in their fleet). The labour market within the city is extremely limited. For someone unskilled in telekinesis or anything else, the only possible jobs are those involving lodestone mining, and even that is slowly being taken over. One result of this is that in order to avoid an economic slump, the city is basically forced to provide education. Since this is clearly good for business, most guilds have taken the burden of this task onto themselves. The guilds use a formal contract which is that the education they provide is paid for (at least partly) by working for the guilds, in which case it is secured against performance. As a result, the poor have to completely excel in entry. Guilds have invented a rudimentary scheme to work out hw much a student will cost them vs. how much income he will bring when he works. Only students who are above a certain 'profitability ratio' are accepted. The telekinetic guild has its own lower class, who are skilled but poor and of low social standing, who handle what would be considered menial labour such as individual substeps of construction (rather than grand elements). Interestingly, by an innate feature of its nature, the Arcane Craft is the closest one can get to egalitarian. The only resource it requires is a miniscule amount of lodestone and iron (to practice with). Additionally, it has to be practised individually; tuitions and books help, but only up to (a fairly basic) point. The economy of the city is powered by guilds, who are ruled by the Banking and Investing guilds, namely Primus. The Investors are extremely rich, and provide funding to ventures which they find profitable. The Guilds, in turn, organise the most skilled craftsmen in each field to work together to make profitable things. The Guilds maintain effective monopolies on their various industries, with the exception of the Arcane Guild which has some competition. The Arcane Guild is funded by foreign trade of goods, and from selling magical technology (or people in the form of arcanist shipmates and advisors). Since they have a steady income, they can afford to extort people for a lot of their work. As a result, plenty of freelance alternatives have sprung up. The guild dislikes this intensely, and usually either ruins the reputation of these freelancers or assimilates them into the guild. These guilds, for the sake of business, usually keep up a good relationship with each other. The shipbuilders and merchants trade in kind rather than in Ducats, since they both require as much of the others goods as they can get. For instance, the arcanists guild might borrow a scientist or artist to help design a large project, and then use trained telekinetic craftsmen to create it. The Guild schools themselves are quite efficient. The schools have a main set of teachers as well as a cast of rotating specialists who train students. After a certain age, all students who do well enough become apprenticed to a journeyman, and then eventually progress to full guildsman status. The city is predominantly a manufacturing economy. The main exports are ships (which carry themselves, conveniently) and other goods such as intricate jewellery, sculptures, and machinery. They sell, in particular, military equipment to those who want it such as Condottieri. This includes swords, muskets, and warships with heavy cannon and strong metal hulls, which poorly-made cannonballs can bounce right off. Their main import is raw materials, namely magnetic metals such as iron. These are used to construct their city, in a way that can be played with periodically by creative architects. They also import literature and related items such as manuscripts and printing presses. Since it can produce things at very low costs, Ethax has enough bargaining power to convince other countries to leave it alone; if not enough to dominate them too completely.